The present invention relates to baby strollers, and more particularly to baby strollers for various terrains.
Traditionally, baby strollers have been used to push an infant slowly on a relatively hard, smooth floor or sidewalk. As a result, the strollers were made small and light. These strollers work well enough at slow speed, but are extremely unwieldy and even dangerous on rough surfaces or at higher speeds.
As parents have become more health conscious in recent times, jogging and fast walking has become a popular pastime. Because baby strollers were not designed to be operated at high speed or on rough terrain, parents could jog or fast walk only when another person was available to babysit. As any parent knows, it is not always easy to find babysitters, so the ability of the parent to stay in shape by jogging or fast walking was severely limited.
Even for non-jogging parents, the need for an improved baby stroller has been apparent. The small, plastic wheels customarily used for the baby strollers are almost useless when it is desired to walk with an infant in a grassy park or on a rough road or sidewalk. Parents end up not walking with the infant at all or only walking in limited areas.
Recently, all-terrain baby strollers have been designed to overcome these problems. These strollers typically employ much larger wheels, often large bicycle tires. The stroller frame and frame connections are constructed to be stronger and larger to handle the heavy duty use they may receive. It is now quite common to see a parent pushing an infant while jogging, fast walking or even just slow walking in grassy, bumpy areas or over other rough terrain. However, there are drawbacks to these types of strollers.
Although the all-terrain baby strollers are suitable for use over varying terrain types, they are not optimized for each terrain type they encounter. For example, larger bicycle-type wheels on the front of the stroller may be optimal for rough terrain, especially when travel is at higher speeds, such as when a parent is jogging, but those wheels are not optimal for slow speed operation on smooth surfaces when a tight turning radius is desirable, such as in the aisles of a supermarket.
The present invention resides in a portable baby stroller and an interchangeable front wheel support structure therefore. The baby stroller is comprised of a frame with an attachment member. There is at least one rear wheel rotatably mounted to the frame, and there are a plurality of interchangeable front wheel support structures. Each of the front wheel support structures include at last one front wheel which is rotatably attached to the structure. Also, each front wheel structure has an attachment member configured to releasably attach to the frame attachment member.
The plurality of interchangeable front wheel support structures include different wheel configurations. The first and second structures have alternative front wheel configurations selectable for particular terrain over which the baby stroller is to be used.
In one preferred embodiment, the baby stroller frame has a bottom left member and a bottom right member. The members are spaced apart relative to one another but symmetrically positioned. There are a plurality of interchangeable front wheel support structures, each having a left mating portion and a right mating portion. The mating portions are spaced apart in relation to the front ends of the left and right bottom frame members so that the left mating portion is aligned with the front end of the left frame member and the right mating portion is aligned with the front end of the right frame member. Each mating portion is configured for insertion within the corresponding frame member and retention therein during use of the baby stroller.
In the particular preferred embodiment described above, the plurality of front wheel support structures, and the wheels attached thereto, includes different configurations. Among these configurations there is at least one swivel assembly having at least one wheel rotatably attached to the swivel assembly. The swivel assembly is configured to permit the wheel to swivel about an axis transverse to the axis of rotation of the wheel. Another configuration maintains a front wheel in static alignment with the rear wheels of the baby stroller. The wheel of this configuration is larger in diameter than the wheel of the swivel assembly.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.